I have never been to a job fair like this before. There are around 80 schools represented from many different countries, and around 500 candidates looking for positions. I was told that usually there ends up being plenty of schools for the number of recruiters, but this year, that is not the case. The economy is affected world wide, and it is definitely evident at this fair. There are very few, and highly coveted elementary positions. I was lucky to get three interviews. One interview is with a school in Cairo, one is with a school in Italy, and one is with a school in Colombia. I had interest in other schools as well, and left recruiters notes in a mailbox with my resume. The recruiters can then leave me a letter of interest and information about their schools in my mailbox.
While I am making pro and con lists in my head about these job opportunities, I just want to add what I did for food this weekend. Not only was it about being prepared at the job fair for interviews, but being prepared to eat safely all weekend. I stayed with two of my friends at their apartments. I packed a cooler with food in it and planned my meals ahead of time. I didn’t want to stress my friends out unfairly by feeling like they had to feed me. I was also at the fair for the majority of each of the three days. I left the cooler in the car (it was freezing outside, so everything stayed cold). When I had time, I could always run out to my car in the parking garage and grab whatever I wanted. One of the afternoons I had leftover beef stew. I asked the restaurant inside the hotel where the fair was being held if they would heat it up for me. They were really nice about it and even emptied it into a bowl for me at one of the tables. I really appreciated it! This weekend just showed how important it is to plan food out ahead of time. I had plenty of food and was never hungry because I figured out a way to prepare my own food and not have to worry about finding allergy safe food on the go.
Update after interviews…
The interviews went really well, and I was offered a job right away by two of the schools. Now I have to make a decision…
